500-year-old cave paintings reveal how the first Europeans in the Caribbean tried to convert natives to Christianity

Cave drawings discovered on a remote Caribbean island reveal how some of the earliest Europeans talked with indigenous people about religion.

A large collection of early colonial inscriptions written within a cave system in Mona Island have been found by archaeologists from the British Museum and the University of Leicester. 

They include more than 30 historic inscriptions, including phrases in Latin and Spanish such as “God forgive you”, as well as dates and Christian symbols, the Daily Mail reported.

The findings provide dramatic new insights into some of the earliest interactions between these two very different cultures. 

"They have provided new understandings of colonial processes that are more nuanced than mere oppression, domination and, in the case of the Caribbean, indigenous extinction," the researchers write. 

The inscriptions were written by named individuals within the cave system.

Three major phrases are found in the caves. As well as 'God forgive you', they include Plura fecit deus or 'God made many things'.

"There is no obvious contemporary textual source for this phrase, and the commentary appears to be a spontaneous response to whatever the visitor experienced in the cave," the researchers write.   


“The phrase may express the theological crisis of the New World discovery, which throws the personalised human experience and reaction into sharp relief.”

The third Latin inscription, Verbum caro factum est, is a direct quotation from the Vulgate version of the bible, the Gospel of John 1:14 and translates to 'And the Word was made flesh [and dwelt among us]”. 

The biblical passage follows a description of the creation of the world, and is the first announcement of Jesus (the Word) in the Gospel, followed by his baptism.

This is one of the best known of all chapters of the Bible, and would have been familiar even to Christians without any formal Latin education.

The researchers say that the nature of these drawings gives us an idea of the tone and personal context of this first encounter.

The results have been published in a paper, in Antiquity.

The findings are on the island of Mona, which lies on the Atlantic route from Europe to the Americas, and was recorded by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in AD 1494.